Thread: Project Sebring GT Spyder

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I really lost count of how many times I started on parts only to have them get screwed up. These fails sometimes happened after hours and hours of effort. Each progressive attempt became a learning experience, though, and I eventually found a way to do the job with the tools I had available, plus a few simple tools and jigs that I made.

The frame has several parts that all have to be curved to match the cowl and windshield posts. In addition, due to the curving parts, the whole frame has to bolt together. If it doesn't have a way to come apart, you simply can't get the glass in. The frame has to be assembled around the glass. This was also true for the original Healey frame.

For a brief while I thought about attempting to machine the parts from aluminum, but gave up on that idea. Even with the limited CNC capability I have, getting all the curves right would have been a nightmare. I decided that my best course was to fab individual pieces to form the face that is visible from the front and the groove for the glass. These parts would be TIG welded together. I tried a few experiments to see if I could weld the parts together in straight sections and then bend them into the curves, but that didn't work too well as it was just a little too much for my bender when I went to steel.

The only bending tool I had was a Harbor Freight bender that I found in my Dad's workshop while helping Mom get things in order after he passed away. It was brand new in a deteriorating box. He had probably bought it over 10 years ago, but never used it. I don't think I ever remember him saying anything about it. I made a large radius bending die from a section of old brake rotor and used another part that was in the bender kit, called a bulldozer die by Hossfeld (which these benders are a copy of), as a long shoe to catch the material to be bent. All of this seemed to work well, especially when I was working with the 1/8" material.





On my first attempt at building from individual parts, I looked at using some aluminum extrusions that I found at a local hardware store. They would have been easy to work with and could be polished. This would have saved a lot of money on chroming, but after playing around with the pieces, I was convinced that they just wouldn't make up into a stiff enough structure. I wanted the frame to support the glass, not the other way around. So, that stuff was returned to the store and I moved on to the next plan. You can just see the aluminum channel across the top of the glass pattern.





I decided to use regular steel and have it chromed. I thought about stainless, but knew going in that this build was going to take lots of fitting, cutting and forming. I don't have a plasma rig and stainless can be a real pain to work with, both cutting and forming. To get the fits I needed on the individual pieces, I needed very precise parts. Not always easy to do with any kind of flame cutting. Also, stainless is expensive. Without knowing exactly how this was going to turn out, I didn't want to throw a bunch of money away on expensive raw materials, only to have most of it wind up as scrap. Turns out that was exactly what happened. I made a lot of scrap.

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Without knowing exactly how this was going to turn out, I didn't want to throw a bunch of money away on expensive raw materials, only to have most of it wind up as scrap. Turns out that was exactly what happened. I made a lot of scrap.

I think that's part of our promise or creed as a hot rodder! We make a lot of scrap but we always seem to re-use a lot of it in ways we never intended too.